Are those Natural Sweeteners… Natural?

4 Mar

I recently wrote an article about artificial sweeteners & received a bunch of messages asking me about natural sweeteners and what’s the difference.

Sugar has continued to evolve and be manipulated within the food industry. I see a lot of people comparing processed sugars with natural alternatives, they often promote the cost difference and nutritional profiles. My issue with this is we need to focus on the quality of our food, which means analysing how a food is processed and refined, what is added and how does this ultimately impact our bodies and the planet.

Artificial vs Natural
Artificial sweeteners are synthetic substitutions of sugar, they are highly manipulated, often contain zero calories and are processed to be much sweeter than real sugar.
Read more here.

Natural Sweeteners are sugars derived from vegetables, trees, seeds, roots, and nuts. I obviously advocate for natural alternatives, but how natural are some of these ‘natural’ sweeteners?

The issue lies with the processing which may involve a synthetic course to becoming natural. By this I mean, biotechnology uses artificial biology (genetic modification) to manipulate natural sources.
Many products promote containing low quantities of sugars, claiming it should be considered negligent. I don’t like it; I don’t care if there is only 1% in that product.. how is it affecting the planet in its processing and how does it affect our health through repeated consumption!? Think bigger!

Some ‘Natural’ Sugars:
Monk Fruit
This is the new alternative to hit the shelves and continues to grow in popularity!
My big issue with this is that if you turn over most of these packets it’s actually Erythritol (99.5%) and Monk Fruit Extract (0.5%)! Crazy!

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol and considered a low calorie sweetener, sugar alcohols can contribute to digestive stress and cause concerns within the gut microbiome.

Processing of monk fruit can involve chlorine washing, seeding, peeling, then followed with “acidification, homogenisation, removal of flavour precursors, removal of volatiles and concentration, stabilisation. And then before the freeze-drying process they will add polydextrose or maltodextrose or sodium hydroxide”.
NO thank you!
Monk fruit is definitely one to read the label and be conscious of the processing. Some companies do promote processing simply through water and hot air to extract the powder.

Xylitol
Is often marketed as natural as it comes from plant fibres like sugar cane, birch, berries, corn, oats and beets. It goes through a process called hydrogenation and uses a nickel-aluminium alloy powder during the process. Which raises the question of is there heavy metal residue? Not only this, but it can also cause digestive stress with some people experiencing bloating, diarrhoea and gas.

Thaumatin
Found in products rather than off the shelf, thaumatin is extracted from the West African katemfe fruit and used as a sweetener or flavour enhancer. However, transgenic barley (GMO) produces 2g thaumatin per kg of barley, which has made it a viable source. It has also been said that there is an unpleasant after taste and some research has shown to combat the taste, manufactures often add flavour agents as well, which could be GMO & who knows how many chemicals. Interestingly, a patent shows gymnemic acid also being added.

Agave
Agave nectar and syrup is derived from a succulent. Which sounds natural, but it’s not my favourite sweetener due to its extremely high and isolated fructose content. When we are consuming something from nature you need to think about the package it comes in. Glucose and Fructose combined allow a boost/maintenance of energy and has a less extreme peak in blood sugar levels. Many people have issues with absorbing fructose, which is another reason I wouldn’t recommend having such high amounts of fructose. Agave is also considered to be highly processed so best to avoid it.

Synthetic Stevia
Synthetic Stevia can be made with fillers & other artificial sweeteners. Make sure to opt for its whole plant natural form only.

Glucose
You can’t find glucose in nature isolated by itself. Just like we spoke about above, glucose is linked with fructose to support its absorption within the body.

Glucose Syrup, Maltose, Dextrose
And others alike come from wheat, however they too go through vigorous processing and may have many other additives also added. Not to mention the glyphosate sprayed on wheat. Not good.

Raw Sugar/White Sugar/Brown Sugar
You may think that this is a natural option, but I want to point out a common practice of processing involved. Even organic raw sugar involves cane juicing, syrup heating, milk of lime (calcium hydroxide), magnesium oxide, canola oil, added icing sugar to produce raw sugar.
To turn that into white sugar which is pure sucrose with no nutritional value it needs to go through even further refinement.
Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back in.

These sugars are completely stripped of any nutritional value.
Not only this, many labels will list ‘sugar’ without any indication of its source. Is it sugar cane or sugar beets? Sugar beets are predominately genetically modified with 95% being GMO in the US! Europe actually requires the labelling of ‘sugar beets’. Sugar beets largely contribute to deforestation and soil erosion.

*Please note there are always exceptions to these, as it is dependant where that particular ingredient is extracted from and how it is processed in that specific instance. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer ask about its origin, the patent of the product and any additives used during processing to get to the bottom of it.

Natural Spoonful’s Recommendations:
Always read your food labels, check what kind of sweetener is being used.
Choose less refined/more nutrient dense sugars instead and keep it varied just like you do with other foods.

When using sugar always be mindful of quantity & quality.
I choose to use:
Raw Honey
Pure Maple Syrup
Coconut Sugar
Rice Malt Syrup (fermented brown rice)
Rapadura/Panela Sugar (simply dehydrated cane juice)
Dates
Fruit
Stevia Leaf (unprocessed green leaf stevia powder).

Have you made the natural switch?
Let’s chat below.